Shuffle Aces: Imaginary Johnny – Punch Drunk

It’s rare that one of your favourite artists is somewhat obscure and hasn’t had the recognition you feel they deserve. Imaginary Johnny is just that for me. I first came across him when I was reviewing CDs many years ago, and have since tracked down everything I could get my hands on. Punch Drunk is probably his most well known song – mainly because it was used in the final episode of Jersey Shore.

Imaginary Johnny is effectively Stuart Wolferman, a Brooklyn-based producer/songwriter who has a very distinct “bedroom-recording” sound in most of his work. I love the texture that he creates and his frequent use of what I can only describe as a toy piano kind of sound. The vocals – and indeed lyrics – are very evocative turn the mundane into the fascinating. Punch Drunk is the track I’m putting up here in part because I wanted a video and this is one of the few on YouTube.

Whilst I do love it, the collection I love most is his first release: the EP Upside Of The Downside. You can find it on Spotify and it is an amazing collection of five songs.

You can find all the Shuffle Ace tracks – including this one – on a Spotify playlist here.

Shuffle Aces is a series of posts that highlights a song of the week that “shuffling” has brought forth. With all the streaming services it’s not just an iPod on shuffle mode that we use to discover new stuff, but the principle remains the same: hit play and wait to see what gems come forth.